A photo essay by Savanna Quevedo
about the photo essay This photo essay was done to delve deeper into the actual personal meanings of the tattoos we see everyday. I focused on young people because there is such a stereotype out there that young people get tattoos that have no meaning or tattoos that they’re going to get tired of. This book is about working to disprove that thought. It was a project I had a lot of fun doing, as I got to meet a lot of new people and hear a lot of cool stories. It also reinforced the thought that everyone is going through something and you can’t judge someone because of how they look or, in this case, the tattoos they have.
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kayla w. // 22 “So the lion I got when I was 18 or 19-yearsold. The surface level explanation of that on is it’s on my family crest. In addition to that I liked that it represented strength and courage. I had just moved 400 miles away from home to go to school and it was way harder than I thought it was going to be so I had to be pretty strong to go away from all of my friends that went to college all together. Lions are also often associated with God kinda like Aslan from Narnia and at that point, God was a big part of my life that I wanted to remember. The second tattoo I got was the lettering “The smallest sprout shows there is really no death and if ever there was it led forward life. That one
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is the most special I’d say. Walt Whitman wrote that in his poem ‘Leaves of Grass.’ I remember reading that in high school and for some reason it just stuck with me. It’s the reason I fell in love with poetry and how words can say something but mean so much more. When my grandfather passed away that part of the poem stuck with me. I knew that he wasn’t really gone and that what he’d passed onto me would live on as I teach my kids the same skills and lessons he taught me. The third tattoo is the lotus. They say the lotus only grows from the mud. I think that’s a pretty cool metaphor and I was going through some pretty tough stuff in my life. At that point in my life I was just
starting to see the other side of some pretty sad things and I felt like maybe that “mud” I was going through was leading to a pretty beautiful life. I also just really love flowers. Every year for my birthday and Valentine’s day my grandmother would buy me or pick me flowers from her garden. So I associate flowers with so much love. My last tattoo is the Sun. I like to think its a pretty good representation of my life at this time. I feel like something is shining down on me, I’ve lucked out with an awesome last year with people who truly care about me and who I know are safe to trust. I wrote a poem for one of my friends and it said ‘like the sun brings the world warmth, you bring me the same’ and
thats how I feel about a lot of my life right now. Additionally I love Kacey Musgraves and one of my favorite songs by her says “you only get so many trips around the sun” just kind of a reminder that I need to be happy and live for the now.”
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RICHARD J. // 22 “This tattoo is a 5x5 square and it has nine puzzle pieces and the corner pieces and the center pieces are all dates. They are the birthdates of my grandmother, my grandfather, my little brother, my mother and myself and I am in the center. My mom got a similar tattoo, except in the shape of a heart. We went together and got our tattoos done at the same time. It kind of connects us. The puzzles really represent the important pieces in our lives and what family means to us.�
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JUSTIN C. // 22 “I have two tattoos. They both go down my triceps. On my left tricep is my last name, and on my right tricep is my mom’s maiden name. I got the idea around the age of 16. It’s got a little deeper meaning than most would think. My right hand is my dominant hand and throughout my life my mother and her side of the family were a more dominant part of my life. They have been very significant in helping me grow as an individual. My fathers family have been there, just not as frequently as I would like, but they are still a part of who I am and that’s why they’re on my other arm.”
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RICHARD J. // 22 “One of the tattoos is the initial of my grandfather, which also happens to be my initials, and the year he was born. I got that when I was a freshman, I was 18. He died when I was eight and he just meant and lot to me and he was the main father figure in my life so I felt like I wanted to have him as part of me.�
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CONNOR M. // 22 “I started playing guitar after 6th grade and I continued playing and I’ve played a bunch of shows and met bunch of people so the branches in the tree are the different connections and friends I’ve made through just playing the guitar.”
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Hannah b. // 20 “My tattoo has roses and stemwork, but the important part of it is the butterflies. When I was born, I was diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa simplex, which means I was born without a cell that acts as the glue between my dermis and epidermis. The condition is centralized in my feet and hands so walking is hard. I get about 40 blisters on my feet everyday. It’s pretty debilitating and awful. Kids that are born with this are told that they are butterfly children and that their skin is as fragile as a butterfly. It attaches something beautiful to something seen as ugly. I got the tattoo so I can look at the beautiful butterflies and remember that I’m a butterfly child and I’m still just as beautiful as everyone else.”
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BRianna l. // 22 ““222 has been a number that has followed me since I was a pre-teen. Basically, it has just been a lucky number. It seemed to be everywhere, from my bus number, to my locker number, even my house number in Maine. Good things always happened with this number. I decided to commemorate it with a tattoo. I have the arrow behind it to kind of signify to follow your arrow. Don’t let anyone tell you what you should do. Follow your own path. I also shoot archery so it tied in nicely with that.”
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Hannah b. // 19 “The semicolon is saying to take a pause in life and then to continue. It’s also a mental health awareness symbol. I saw a lot of people getting it and I have a lot of people that I know going through mental health issues and I’ve even gone through mental health stuff so it seemed fitting to be my first tattoo.”
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dani s. // 19 “I am a big Disney fan and I am really into all the quotes and everything and also through high school, with personal problems, it was kind of my motto almost. Just to push through, don’t give up, keep fighting. All those kinds of sayings kind of encapsulate into ‘just keep swimming.’”
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samantha m. // 20 “When I was younger, I was always really quiet, soft spoken and really shy. I found it hard to make friends. So, my dad and my grandfather always reminded me that I had the capability to go out, take chances and really believe in myself. So, when I really started to believe that I could is when I got the tattoo. You really do miss every shot you don’t take so just reminding yourself to reach for absolutely everything and knowing that it can’t bring any harm to do so is just a reminder than I feel like I need to have all the time.”
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mia m. // 18 “I am very religious, but when I came to college I kind of felt like I lost it a little bit and decided I really wanted to get back to it. I started doing bible studies and that kind of stuff and my first reading was Psalms 91. It says ‘He will cover you in feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.”
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BRYAN B. // 22 “The music line is the first line of my drum solo, which I’ve been playing for about five years. I’ve been playing the drums for about 16 years. The quote is from my grandfather and he was in charge of one of the drum lines I used to be a part of. He was a big part of my life so I got it for him.”
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mia m. // 18 “This heart is something my best friend and I both got at the same time. We always say that we’re eachothers soul mates and we’re a part of eachother so we thought getting matching tattoos would be a great way to show that. She has the heart on her shoulder and I have it on my foot. I have the tattoo on my foot because I feel like she always guides me and keeps me grounded. This way, she is always close to me.”
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dani s. // 19 “The tattoo on my foot says ‘warrior’ and the ‘i’ is a semicolon. It ties in with Project Semicolon, which is supposed to help you to just stop for a second and take a breath. It is used when writer could have chosen to end their sentence but didn’t. It’s all about preventing self-harm and that stuff. The warrior part comes from my parents and my grandparents. They always called me their little warrior as I was growing up, just because mentally, I’ve kind of been through a lot: anxiety, depression, everything. Physically I had a lot of accidents and sports injuries and stuff and always pushed through so my family called me their warrior.”
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